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Course SANT230

Urban Anthropology

Course offered :

Number of credits 10
Course offered (semester) Autumn
Schedule Schedule
Reading list Reading list

Language of Instruction

English

Pre-requirements

None

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the course the student should be able to:

  • Give an overview of key ethnographies and debates in urban anthropology.
  • give an overview of the way social relationships and cultural forms can be shaped by different urban environments.
  • Provide summaries of particular ethnographies dealing with the development of urban subcultures.
  • apply key concepts and perspectives so as to understand processes of urbanisation from a historical and comparative approach.
  • discuss different social and cultural forces producing and transforming urban environments.

Contact Information

Department of Social Anthropology

Fosswinckelsgate 6

5007 Bergen

Homepage: http://www.uib.no/antro

E-mail: advice@sosantr.uib.no

Phone: +47 55 58 92 50

Fax: +47 55 58 92 60

Course offered (semester)

Autumn

Exam offered (semester)

Autumn/spring

Language of Instruction

English

Course Unit Level

Bachelor level

Access to the Course Unit

This subject is open to students at UiB

Aim and Content

The ongoing process of urbanization will soon turn the majority of the world´s population into urbanites. This points to the relevance of bringing anthropological perspectives on social and cultural processes into comparative studies of specific features of urban life. This line of study emerged relatively late within anthropology, starting with studies of urban migration and incorporation of rural groups into state and regional economies. It has however been a vital part of the discipline for many decades. The discipline´s insights into non-capitalist and non-Western forms of social and cultural processes make it particularly well equipped to study the complexity of social, cultural and political processes within a comparative framework. It can thus challenge some of the assumptions in the classical theories about urban life based on Western society. The complexity and scale of urban life have however produced a productive challenge to methodology that will be discussed in the course.

The course presents important approaches to anthropology of and in cities. It discusses topics such as urban growth and regulation, urban complexity and identities, forms of urban sociality, spatial practices, migration, ethnicity and class. On the topic of migration the course has an empirical emphasis on Scandinavian migration policies and ethnic complexity. The need for a comparative approach is also underlined in the course, through non-Western cases that differ from the development of Western industrial cities.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the course the student should be able to:

  • Give an overview of key ethnographies and debates in urban anthropology.
  • give an overview of the way social relationships and cultural forms can be shaped by different urban environments.
  • Provide summaries of particular ethnographies dealing with the development of urban subcultures.
  • apply key concepts and perspectives so as to understand processes of urbanisation from a historical and comparative approach.
  • discuss different social and cultural forces producing and transforming urban environments.

Pre-requirements

None

Recommended previous knowledge

SANT100 / basic knowledge of anthropology

Teaching Methods

Lectures

2 hours a week

9 weeks

18 hours (lectures) in total

Compulsory Requirements

None

Assessment methods

6 hours written exam

Grading Scale

Grading A-F

Course Unit Evaluation

A third of the courses offered each semester will be evaluated through My Space

Contact Information

Department of Social Anthropology

Fosswinckelsgate 6

5007 Bergen

Homepage: http://www.uib.no/antro

E-mail: advice@sosantr.uib.no

Phone: +47 55 58 92 50

Fax: +47 55 58 92 60